Saturday, 4 February 2012

New Zealand Day Eight – Waitomo and National Park

“We’re leaving early in the
morning as I have booked a nine o’clock tour of the caves,” my sister said.. “Sure no problem, what time?”“5.45am”“uh, ok,” I gulped forcing
a smile, while thinking it was too early even for me. Still I was up at five and even had time for
breakfast before we left.

We reached Waitomo just
after eight; before the ticket office and café were open. It was raining much of the way down and the
drizzle continued all day. We had booked
to visit two caves; the first was Ruakari, which has only been open for the
last six years. Because the only dry
entrance was a Maori burial site that was considered sacred, a new entrance had
to be dug out and connected to the old cave. It was done very well via a spiral
walkway leading underground. I had never
been to a cave before and was awed by the immensity and beauty of the white
stalagtites and stalagmites that had grown over millennia. There were so many
different shapes and patterns and it was wonderful the way they became faces,
people or whatever the imagination decided..

It was also fascinating to
see how the force of water had eroded the limestone to form the chambers of the
caves. Incredible to think that they are
still constantly changing and evolving and have done so for thousands and
thousands of years.

The power of nature is
overwhelming yet so fragile that human contact could easily destroy everything
in a very short space of time – seconds if one thinks of the earth’s existence
as a clock. It is good that attention
has been given to trying to preserve the live of the caves. We were asked not to touch anything as it
could contaminate the stalagtites and mites and all the walkways were suspended
so if they were removed only a few holes would remain in the rock. We were allowed to photograph inside the cave
but when we reached the glow worms were we were asked not to as the light
disturbs them.

We walked in darkness,
hands on the person in front’s shoulders and it was well worth the slight
scariness of the dark to see the bright lights of the glow worms, like hundreds
of stars in the night sky. We saw their
fibre-thin feeding threads and learned how their light attracts insects such as
mosquitoes and flies.After Ruakari, we went into
another cave that had a cathedral-like chamber where concerts are held
especially at Christmas. There is no
echo as sound is absorbed by the limestone.
After this we were taken on boats, in total darkness to see the glow
worms that lit up the vaulted ceiling of the cave.

From there we drove to
National Park and though cloud covered much of the mountain, we drove to the
top of Ruapehu. Looking around, the area
felt very apocalyptic, It also brought
to mind the phrase “dark satanic rocks” as the mountain is volcanic and I could
easily imagine lava or lala (volcanic water) spewing from the volcano and then
cooling to shape this hostile landscape.
A little lower down much of the area was covered in heather and hardy
plants. We took a rather soggy two hour walk
in the rain to the Taranaki
Falls.

This waterfall was very different from the
others we’d seen. Water gushed through a
deep fissure in the steep rocks down to a pool below and it looked as if
someone had turned a tap on.

Wet and weary (who said my
waterproof was actually waterproof?) we had dinner in the nearby Chateau – a
very tasty, home-made potato soup followed by a glass of wine in the bar.